Vivek Ramaswamy in CNN "State of the Union" interviews for 2023 races
On Budget & Economy:
Unleash the animal inside the heart of the American economy
There's this false debate between spending cuts or raising taxes between Democrats and Republicans. I think we have forgotten the biggest ingredient to actually deliver us from our problems. That is GDP growth itself. GDP growth was over 4% in this
country until the early 70s. It's been less than 2.5% ever since. I think we need to unleash the American animal inside the heart of the American economy. And so that's why I'm taking aim at certain opponents or certain anti-growth measures.
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023/2024 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 13, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Defining political debate is pro-American vs. anti-American
I do consider myself a conservative, but I don't believe that the defining political debate in this country is between Republicans and Democrats. I think it is between those who are fundamentally pro-American, whether you believe in the ideals
that set this nation into motion, from free speech and open debate, to meritocracy, to self-governance over aristocracy. Or are you anti- American? Do you actually wish to apologize for a nation whose existence is pinned to those ideals?
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023/2024 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 13, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Blames Biden for special counsel & indictment of Trump
Q: Trump's indictment [on withholding classified documents was] approved by a grand jury.RAMASWAMY: I think we have to be able to draw a distinction between bad judgments and breaking the law. And when especially the federal police apparatus
conflates the two, that's a threat to liberty for everyone, not just President Trump, but every American, where every misjudgment is treated as a violation of law.
Q: It is unprecedented.
RAMASWAMY: Based on the precedent of the Clinton sock drawer
case, it is at the president's sole discretion as to what is and is not covered as a presidential record, I think the court will acquit him. If Trump's judgment was bad, President Biden's judgment is worse for actually bringing a prosecution.
Q: Pres.
Biden didn't bring a prosecution.
RAMASWAMY: The Department of Justice reports into the President. And so this is a fig leaf. Get to the bottom of what Biden told [Attorney General Merrick] Garland and what Garland told [Special Counsel] Jack Smith.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Jun 11, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Deliver national unity with our shared American identity
We're in the middle of this national identity crisis. I think the opportunity for the GOP now is not just to complain about wokeness, or gender ideology, or climate ideology, but actually to go upstream and fill that black hole with a vision of
American national identity that runs so deep that it dilutes these agendas to irrelevance and actually unifies us as a country. I'm the candidate best positioned to actually deliver national unity by reawakening that shared American identity.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 12, 2023
On Principles & Values:
Capitalism has to stay apolitical to bring us together
I think that it's inherently divisive to tell us that we're nothing more than the characteristics we inherit on the day we're born. That divides us on the basis of race and sex and sexual orientation.And then, when that merges with
capitalism, we lose the apolitical sanctuary in our economy, that otherwise brings us together, whether we're black or white, even whether we're Democrat or Republican. That's one of the underappreciated reasons why capitalism has to stay apolitical.
Source: CNN interviews on 2023 Presidential hopefuls
Mar 12, 2023
On Crime:
Trump should not be convicted of a process crime
Q: The superseding indictment [in the Florida classified documents case] says that after Trump learned that the Justice Department wanted to subpoena security footage from Mar-a-Lago, Trump [criminally] wanted the footage deleted. You've said repeatedly
that you would pardon Trump in this documents case...RAMASWAMY: I think that our general norm in our Justice Department is, you should not convict somebody of a process crime when there was no actual underlying crime.
Q: So, you think destroying
evidence is a process crime?
RAMASWAMY: I think it is, by definition, a process crime. Nobody left, right -- any legal scholar will agree with me on that statement. That is, by definition, a process crime, a crime that would not have existed but for
the existence of an investigation. I absolutely think the right answer for the country is to put the grievances of the past behind us, to pardon President Trump, so that we can move forward as one nation, rather than marching to a national divorce.
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 30, 2023
On Principles & Values:
For my part, I stand for the America first agenda
For my part, I stand for the America first agenda. I think I am the only candidate in this race, in the entire Republican primary field, who can deliver a Ronald Reagan 1980-style landslide election, a moral mandate in this election.
And I think that is critically important to unite this country and, frankly, to drive forward the agenda that I have to shut down the administrative state, to declare independence from China.
Source: CNN SOTU interviews on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Jul 30, 2023
Page last updated: Sep 17, 2023